Research work by A+D faculty and students will be featured at ACCelerate: ACC Smithsonian Creativity and Innovation Festival, a celebration of creative exploration and research to be held at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., Oct. 13-15. Virginia Tech's Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology and the Museum's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation are hosting the national event, which includes 47 research projects from 15 universities in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Prof. Paola Zellner Bassett and Adam Burke collaborated with music faculty member Charles Nichols to create Dense Space: Il Mobile Featuring "Beyond the Dark." This audiovisual exhibit consists of spheres in varied sizes and made of epoxy-impregnated glass fiber that when illuminated by light, cast shadows perceived as three-dimensional through 3-D glasses. The 3-D shadows make the boundary and depth of space uncertain and the location of objects in space ambiguous. The accompanying soundtrack by Nichols, "Beyond the Dark," is a multichannel piece looping 22 minutes of synthesized sound.

Dense Space exhibit

Dr. Nathan King and graduate student Ed Coe, along with students and faculty in the College of Engineering, produced Design Robotics: Robot-Assisted Fabrication. Robot-operated machines come to life in this exhibit that features a demonstration of a large-scale robotic arm 3-D printing system, alongside other work. The exhibit takes place inside an experimental wooden grid shell structure created using robotic fabrication techniques, traditional craftsmanship, and manufacturing processes. Other pieces made with robotic devices include sculpted foam structures and 3-D-printed glass.

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